A conventional printing system can only adopt either a method of holding printing settings only for a whole document or a method of holding printing settings only for a part. A printing system using the former method cannot perform partial settings for a part of a document. For example, in N-page printing (printing method of reducing and laying out original images of N pages on one sheet, as needed) as typical layout setting, 2-page printing can be set as a setting for a whole document, but cannot be changed to 4-page printing for a part of the document.
In the latter method, no setting can be done for a whole document, and attributes such as the document form are held for each part. The document form and printing settings must be changed for each part, and cannot be changed at once for the whole document.
Under the present circumstances, the present applicant has filed a document processing system in which data serving as document contents and setting values such as the form are held in a hierarchical tree structure and various setting items can be set for a whole document and also each layer (U.S. Ser. No. 10/241,633). This system can unify the form of a whole document and also partially change settings by holding the setting items of the whole document and the setting items of each layer.
As document editing operation, the document processing system can not only change setting values, but also edit the document structure so as to move or copy an arbitrary partial tree such as each page or a set of pages. In inserting new data, or moving or copying existing data, a whole document can be unified, or an exceptional setting can be partially set by maximizing the feature of hierarchically holding data and setting values.
In the document editing system, the data structure is expressed by the tree format in order to hold data in the hierarchical structure. Also in displaying a document, the document is displayed by a tree representing the document structure. In this tree structure, a node corresponding to a tree knar specifies a part belonging to the node. The user can edit data while checking the display of the tree structure.
To separate a given intermediate node (node except a root and leaf) into a plurality of nodes, a blank node (to which no part belongs) in the same layer as that of the node to be separated is created. Of parts belonging to the node to be separated, only a target part is moved to the blank node prepared in advance, resulting in complicated operation. Since each node holds attributes, the attributes of the node to be separated must be manually copied to the blank node.
The print format and form are set for each part belonging to a node in each layer, and thus separation of an intermediate node is indispensable in changing document settings. This is because the settings of only a separated part or a part left after separation can be changed without changing the settings of another part. However, this operation is complicated, as described above, and the document editing/printing efficiency is low with poor operability.